Ukraine develops criteria for exporting defense products to partner countries — Kostenko

This was reported by the Secretary of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence, SBU Advisor Roman Kostenko in an interview on the Ukrinform YouTube channel, conducted by Igor Dkhov.

“We are currently developing criteria for the export of certain types of Ukrainian-made defense products or their components to partner countries. The Committee, the Ministry of Defense, the Security Service of Ukraine and members of the interdepartmental commission on military-technical cooperation are working on this. I am confident that the corresponding decision will be made in the near future,” Kostenko noted.

According to him, this is the first step towards cooperation with international partners and the exchange of Ukrainian developments.

At the same time, Kostenko emphasized that all these processes should be in the interests of Ukraine.

“We cannot give everything away and be left without the necessary resources. We must also take precautions to ensure that our products do not end up in enemy hands, and that some of our developments do not harm our soldiers in the trenches,” Kostenko emphasized.

He noted that exports should only be made to partner countries that have end-user certificates, and control over this process should be very strict, since “we understand that we can sell products to Africa, but they may end up in Russia.”

As Kostenko explained, Ukraine’s previous position was that almost everything that is used on the battlefield and produced by domestic defense industry enterprises cannot be exported.

“We were afraid that partners, seeing that we have enough of our own resources, might refuse further assistance. However, now we are seeing growing interest from the partners themselves. Now we can say that we have created many new enterprises, satisfied our own needs, and there is still capacity. There are new, exclusive developments,” Kostenko added.

He emphasized that Ukrainian diplomats must competently convey to partners Ukraine's readiness for cooperation, because “the state must show that this is our advantage: we not only care about ourselves, but are also ready to support partners. We are united, we strive to join NATO, we are moving towards the Eurasian Union and we are interested in our partners having modern weapons, which are among the most effective on the battlefield.”

“I am confident that this initiative will be implemented to the end. It is currently in its final stage,” Kostenko added.

Let us recall that in the period from January to March 2025, Ukrainian defense industry enterprises received preferential loans in the amount of UAH 463 million.